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Press Release

Former PA Turnpike Commission Employee Sentenced To 200 Months In Prison For Producing Child Pornography

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Pennsylvania

PITTSBURGH - A Fayette County resident was sentenced on Nov. 5, 2014, in federal court to 200 months imprisonment, to be followed by 15 years supervised release, on her conviction of production of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

United States District Judge Nora Barry Fischer imposed the sentence on Lisa A. Renze, 49, of Uniontown, Pa.

According to information presented to the court, on Jan. 30, 2010, Renze used and coerced a 12-year-old minor female to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing digital photographs of the conduct. The sexually explicit digital photographs taken on Jan. 30, 2010, and other occasions between 2009 and 2011, were then distributed by Renze to her friend and Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission co-worker, John Longo. Longo entered a guilty plea to a similar charge of production of child pornography on Aug. 28, 2014. The sentencing for John Longo is scheduled for Jan. 22, 2015. Longo has been detained pending that sentencing proceeding.

The defendant was remanded to the Bureau of Prisons.

Assistant United States Attorney Carolyn J. Bloch prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

U.S. Attorney Hickton commended the United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Pennsylvania State Police for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Renze.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Updated July 14, 2015